The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to the light amid the thorns ~ George Santayana

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Every Child is Valuable....

As I approach the end of the year, my heart fills with great sadness.

I would usually get Aisha's school report, her grades and she would send me emails on her milestones for this year and her goals for the next.

I will not be getting them this year...

I will never be getting them again for the other years...

Aisha is gone...bombed, blown to bits and pieces on her way back from school. My heart just breaks repeatedly when I think of it. I cannot imagine what her biological mother is going through.

I was shocked and full of sadness to hear about the 20 children that died in the Sandy Hook shootings.

Obama gave a speech and shed a tear for the beautiful children that lost their lives to soon, flags were flown at half mast, there were petitions for moments of silence for the victims who lost their lives which I supported and signed. Stories about how beautiful each child that was lost was plastered on every social and media network possible.

And at the back of my mind, I just kept wondering, what about my child? what about my Aisha? what about the other children who have lost their lives to bombs and guns and acts of violence and war which they do not understand? what about the children of gaza who lost their lives in the recent attacks? no tears were shed, no flags flew at half mast, no stories were written about them...the children who died, including Aisha were tossed away, forgotten and ignored.

And I cried, I cried for them all...for the children who lost their lives in Sandy Hook, for the children who lost their lives in Gaza, for the children who lost their lives in Syria, for the children who lost their lives in Burma and Arakan, they were all beautiful, they were all innocent, they all had promise, they all had stories to tell. And they are all gone...

So let us grieve the children of the Sandy Hook shootings, but let us not forget every other child in Gaza, in Syria, in Burma, in Haiti who are dying daily because of violence, malnutrition, hunger, war and terror. None of them, wherever they may be deserve to be forgotten. Let us grieve for them all... when we have that moment of silence, let it be for all those children. They were all angels. All of them...

No life of one child is more valuable than another...

My Aisha will be immortalised in time...forever a child....forever 12.

Freedom for Palestine

If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen - Samuel Adams